I began looking at the comments for this story just to see how many comments will say it's a good thing or how many have excuses why it's acceptable.
I was disappointed there were so many.
Google Toolbar is a good program for those who use IE (I think it's totally unnecessary for Mozilla) but Google or not, bundled software is just obnoxious. It's sad to see Google going down this road. If I want to install Google Toolbar, I will go to google's website and download and install it. If I go to the shockwave download site, then I only want shockwave.
Google's contributing to the problem a lot of people have, where they have too many programs installed on their systems they never wanted. Too many programs installed even, that they don't even know are there.
As for the government spending money on R&D and production, every penny of your money the government spends on R&D and production ends up in the paychecks of the employees and shareholders associated with the companies that got the contracts.
Then again, with all the ties politicians have to corporations like Halliburton, The Carlyle Group, etc... in a lot of cases, when the government spends on defense... a lot of that money directly benefits the politicians' retirement funds.
And keep in mind that we attacked them. Had we not attacked them, they weren't about to attack us. Meanwhile, some other people were. And we left them alone.
Of course, I don't have a problem with our gov't safeguarding us and preventing another 3,000 of our citizens from being killed by terrorists, but I guess I'm not blinded by hatred of our President.
How do you feel about our government's foreign policy and attitude to the rest of the world that creates the kind of hatred of us that makes people want to attack us in the first place?
Or how do you feel about the 18,961 - 42,900 civilian casualties that have occurred overseas? They were people, too... who did NO wrong.
Keep in mind this money is not being spent on making you safer. You can still probably smuggle weapons on an airplane... borders are still not safe... etc. We went after Iraq which never attacked us, seemingly ignored Al Qaeda and countries that were more responsible like Iran or Russia or bigger threats like North Korea.
This money is getting spent on taking away your American liberties, and spent on fighting a war that should never have even begun (then again, the stated reasons for beginning the war have changed multiple times over the years, so maybe the next reason will be better) in the first place.
I don't say these things because of a dislike for the President. I dislike the President because he deserves it.
Well you can always adopt the attitude of "well, i'll die someday and this test won't matter in the long run, the world will forget about me, and then the world itself will end someday... in the grand scheme of things i am not that important, let alone this stupid test..."
Ok maybe that's not good advice...
But seriously... I was a Physics major... couldn't handle it and dropped out. I was working full time and slowly downgraded my plans for my future. I was resigning myself to be content with mediocre jobs and low pay, and decided that friends were what would really make me happy.
But then I snapped out of it and realized I was settling for less. I went back, switched to Computer Science and it's all been good. I even had some REALLY bad semesters, but the thing is that I know now that (at least academically, if not in other areas of life such as love...) no matter how bad you screw things up, you can always recover from it, if you're willing to put in some extra work and get determined.
So when you're doing an exam... just remember that if you do bad, it probably isn't determining your entire grade for the class (if you're doing college in the USA), and even if you do bad in the class you can probably retake it... or take a minor hit in your GPA and make up for the loss with another class you do well in.
I know failure can seem daunting and horrible. But some people like me who have done it enough times (failed at things in life) know that it's not the end of the world, and you might end up learning something from it, or get to know yourself better... so it's not a total loss. It's life experience.
It's hard to explain this to people who only get A's their entire life and SERIOUSLY think they're life will end if they get a B. In the end, you're better off being kind to yourself.
I think the difference is that Apple knew old MacOS was broken... whereas now MS refuses to admit the same about WinNT... as far as they're concerned it's a stable and good OS base. So they don't see the need to scrap everything.
I do that a lot, but a lot of times I just forgot to log in. I bet a lot of the non-users who fix typos, etc. are people who DO have accounts but just don't feel like logging in, or have forgotten.
"When I download some OSS and do "configure && make && make install", I expect it to work on Linux and Solaris, but I hold my breath on Mac OS X. Often it just doesn't work, and hacks and more are required to get the software to work."
And sometimes a program that was developed on a PC running Red Hat won't compile on a PC running FreeBSD. A lot of programs will work, but it depends on the program and how portable it is versus how much it gets into specifics of the operating system. I don't see how this should surprise you at all. It really would be the author of that software's fault, not Apple's.
"Take your monitor and make a gradient that is full screen from solid red to solid black. As things are now you get 256 bands of color because there are 256 possible values for red. The problem with this is that the transitions are VERY obvious."
I remember flying to India and somewhere along the way (I think maybe in LAX when we were coming back?) there was a super white blond woman behind me in the security line. I could see nothing about her that was suspicious in any way. I went through without problems, all my stuff scanned fine (including some electronics).
However she got stopped because her Cover Girl compact was suspicious. The security guy said sometimes the mirror in it looks suspicious or something? It sounded like total crap to me... and if I were the woman I would have been annoyed at the stupid inconvenience. Her response though?
"Oh thank you brave officer for your courageous job you do here, I understand it's important and I just thank God we have people like you protecting my country, I'm glad you are being so thorough, I feel very safe now."
(And believe it or not I do not exaggerate on that... she DID say she felt safe now, and talked about courage and God and protecting the country and blah blah blah).
Considering a lot of the users of such sites are children... how ethical or legal is it to do this?
Isn't there anything protecting children below the age of consent from being spied on 24/7?
They'll have a gig of data on them by the time they're 15... suddenly what they were interested in when they were 12 becomes an issue when they're 30 and looking for a job?
Seriously I don't understand how all these people in government become such fans of big brother type stuff? Did we just happen to elect people who always thought "eh, it's not so bad having no privacy and give government all the power in the world"... or is there some switch that flips in their minds once they actually get in office?
I was wondering, the jet from the bottle actually doesn't last very long. And the jets seemed in sync with the music. And the jets lasted quite awhile (except for the big burst at the end of the video).
It makes me wonder if they did this at normal speed to a sped up version of this song... and then slowed the whole thing down to sync it with normal speed music... so the jets seemed to last longer?
Why do people (apparently) keep storing their social security numbers and bank account numbers in unencoded text files on their computers? Apparently it's the only thing people EVER store on their hard drives, judging from stories like these!
I guess I better get started because right now I don't think my bank account number is on my computer anywhere....
"What if next time RMS decides (say under the pretence of intellectual freedom or some crap like that) he doesn't like country music and that free software mustn't be used in any part of the process of creating or playing country music?"
Oh no!!! A nightmare scenario! Don't takes mah country musics away!
Thanks a lot... now I'll be up all night worrying.:-(
"The OS X kernel has been in the news alot this past year, whether it's why its slow, Mach/micro-kernel makes it bad, it's going closed source and what not. Amit Singh has put up a new presentation on the innards of OS X."
"The OS X kernel has been in the news alot this past year. Whether it is why it is slow (Mach/micro-kernel makes it bad) or it is going closed source and what not, Amit Sing has put up a new presentation on the innards of OS X."
The OS X kernel has been in the news a lot this past year; either a discussion of why it's slow, or why a mach/micro-kernel makes it bad, or because it's going closed source, etc. Amit Singh has put up a new presentation on the innards of OS X.
(You skipped over the 'a lot', messed up the meaning of a sentence with parentheses, changed a period to a comma that should have been a period, ruined someone's last name... you have no right to be a grammar nazi!)
Slashdot Mirror
I began looking at the comments for this story just to see how many comments will say it's a good thing or how many have excuses why it's acceptable.
I was disappointed there were so many.
Google Toolbar is a good program for those who use IE (I think it's totally unnecessary for Mozilla) but Google or not, bundled software is just obnoxious. It's sad to see Google going down this road. If I want to install Google Toolbar, I will go to google's website and download and install it. If I go to the shockwave download site, then I only want shockwave.
Google's contributing to the problem a lot of people have, where they have too many programs installed on their systems they never wanted. Too many programs installed even, that they don't even know are there.
Then again, with all the ties politicians have to corporations like Halliburton, The Carlyle Group, etc... in a lot of cases, when the government spends on defense... a lot of that money directly benefits the politicians' retirement funds.
And keep in mind that we attacked them. Had we not attacked them, they weren't about to attack us. Meanwhile, some other people were. And we left them alone.
How do you feel about our government's foreign policy and attitude to the rest of the world that creates the kind of hatred of us that makes people want to attack us in the first place?
Or how do you feel about the 18,961 - 42,900 civilian casualties that have occurred overseas? They were people, too... who did NO wrong.
Keep in mind this money is not being spent on making you safer. You can still probably smuggle weapons on an airplane... borders are still not safe... etc. We went after Iraq which never attacked us, seemingly ignored Al Qaeda and countries that were more responsible like Iran or Russia or bigger threats like North Korea.
This money is getting spent on taking away your American liberties, and spent on fighting a war that should never have even begun (then again, the stated reasons for beginning the war have changed multiple times over the years, so maybe the next reason will be better) in the first place.
I don't say these things because of a dislike for the President. I dislike the President because he deserves it.
Well you can always adopt the attitude of "well, i'll die someday and this test won't matter in the long run, the world will forget about me, and then the world itself will end someday... in the grand scheme of things i am not that important, let alone this stupid test..."
Ok maybe that's not good advice...
But seriously... I was a Physics major... couldn't handle it and dropped out. I was working full time and slowly downgraded my plans for my future. I was resigning myself to be content with mediocre jobs and low pay, and decided that friends were what would really make me happy.
But then I snapped out of it and realized I was settling for less. I went back, switched to Computer Science and it's all been good. I even had some REALLY bad semesters, but the thing is that I know now that (at least academically, if not in other areas of life such as love...) no matter how bad you screw things up, you can always recover from it, if you're willing to put in some extra work and get determined.
So when you're doing an exam... just remember that if you do bad, it probably isn't determining your entire grade for the class (if you're doing college in the USA), and even if you do bad in the class you can probably retake it... or take a minor hit in your GPA and make up for the loss with another class you do well in.
I know failure can seem daunting and horrible. But some people like me who have done it enough times (failed at things in life) know that it's not the end of the world, and you might end up learning something from it, or get to know yourself better... so it's not a total loss. It's life experience.
It's hard to explain this to people who only get A's their entire life and SERIOUSLY think they're life will end if they get a B. In the end, you're better off being kind to yourself.
*nods head in agreement*
ahhh... geek humor is the best humor. :-)
And the first comments I can find are from Jan 1, 1999
I think this kind of comment actually predates slashdot itself...
Shame really... would be fun to go back and see what slashdot arguments took place back in the mid-90s. The oldest date I can find is Dec 31, 1997.
I think the difference is that Apple knew old MacOS was broken... whereas now MS refuses to admit the same about WinNT... as far as they're concerned it's a stable and good OS base. So they don't see the need to scrap everything.
I do that a lot, but a lot of times I just forgot to log in. I bet a lot of the non-users who fix typos, etc. are people who DO have accounts but just don't feel like logging in, or have forgotten.
And sometimes a program that was developed on a PC running Red Hat won't compile on a PC running FreeBSD. A lot of programs will work, but it depends on the program and how portable it is versus how much it gets into specifics of the operating system. I don't see how this should surprise you at all. It really would be the author of that software's fault, not Apple's.
Read this slashdot article and then read this one.
I have a 2.0" monitor, you insensitive clod!
EVAR!
Too true.
I remember flying to India and somewhere along the way (I think maybe in LAX when we were coming back?) there was a super white blond woman behind me in the security line. I could see nothing about her that was suspicious in any way. I went through without problems, all my stuff scanned fine (including some electronics).
However she got stopped because her Cover Girl compact was suspicious. The security guy said sometimes the mirror in it looks suspicious or something? It sounded like total crap to me... and if I were the woman I would have been annoyed at the stupid inconvenience. Her response though?
"Oh thank you brave officer for your courageous job you do here, I understand it's important and I just thank God we have people like you protecting my country, I'm glad you are being so thorough, I feel very safe now."
(And believe it or not I do not exaggerate on that... she DID say she felt safe now, and talked about courage and God and protecting the country and blah blah blah).
Considering a lot of the users of such sites are children... how ethical or legal is it to do this?
Isn't there anything protecting children below the age of consent from being spied on 24/7?
They'll have a gig of data on them by the time they're 15... suddenly what they were interested in when they were 12 becomes an issue when they're 30 and looking for a job?
Seriously I don't understand how all these people in government become such fans of big brother type stuff? Did we just happen to elect people who always thought "eh, it's not so bad having no privacy and give government all the power in the world"... or is there some switch that flips in their minds once they actually get in office?
AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
This was really a big deal to you, huh?
The video on YouTube...
I was wondering, the jet from the bottle actually doesn't last very long. And the jets seemed in sync with the music. And the jets lasted quite awhile (except for the big burst at the end of the video).
It makes me wonder if they did this at normal speed to a sped up version of this song... and then slowed the whole thing down to sync it with normal speed music... so the jets seemed to last longer?
Pretty clever and skillful stunt.
What's wrong with Indian Apple babies?
Well in all seriousness, that usually *is* the first thing that ends up on my hard drive. :-D
Why do people (apparently) keep storing their social security numbers and bank account numbers in unencoded text files on their computers? Apparently it's the only thing people EVER store on their hard drives, judging from stories like these!
I guess I better get started because right now I don't think my bank account number is on my computer anywhere....
Oh no!!! A nightmare scenario! Don't takes mah country musics away!
Thanks a lot... now I'll be up all night worrying.
And he supports Apple, by doing their commercials.
The OS X kernel has been in the news a lot this past year; either a discussion of why it's slow, or why a mach/micro-kernel makes it bad, or because it's going closed source, etc. Amit Singh has put up a new presentation on the innards of OS X.
(You skipped over the 'a lot', messed up the meaning of a sentence with parentheses, changed a period to a comma that should have been a period, ruined someone's last name... you have no right to be a grammar nazi!)